Lando Norris’ title dream is all but over as Max Verstappen proves he’s the greatest driver on the planet, writes JONATHAN McEVOY as Dutchman wins from 17th on the grid in wet and wild Brazilian Grand Prix

A flash and a dream surely died on a wet track as slippery as a chancellor’s promise.

It was lap 43, Max Verstappen was second with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon ahead of him and Lando Norris fifth, clinging to his slippery world championship hopes like it was a bar of soap. The safety car withdrew.

Two things happened almost exactly at the same time. Verstappen steered as confidently as a laser to the inside of turn one for the lead. And just behind him, Norris lost control and ran away. He dropped two places.

It must now be stated without the slightest hint of contradiction, regardless of what the end-of-season standings indicate, that Max Emilion Verstappen, 26 years old, is the greatest racing driver in the world.

Coming from 17th on the grid, he triumphed through the water tails on the undulating Interlagos circuit, where destruction lay on every precarious inch of the resurfaced but bumpy tarmac.

Spray pictured flying off Verstappen’s car during Sunday’s wet Brazilian Grand Prix

Alpine had a great day in the rain as Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly finished second and third

But it was not a good day for Lando Norris as his hopes of catching Verstappen were dealt a major blow

For Norris, his world championship ambitions, which he has never convincingly believed in or carried out with confidence in his pursuit, appear all but over. You can’t start on pole and lose ground to an automatic that’s sixteen places back.

That harsh reality is laid out in the mathematics that now stares Norris in the face like a hall of mirrors. He is 62 points behind Verstappen. There are only 86 left on the betting table heading into Las Vegas where, if Verstappen finishes ahead of the Brit, his fourth consecutive world title is guaranteed.

It will be the best title of his quartet. Achieved against a backdrop of scandals at Red Bull. In a fallen car. In the middle of a McLaren revival.

After taking the lead, Verstappen spun forward as if the sunroof were open on a country road on a Sunday afternoon in the Cotswolds. His margin of victory over second-placed Ocon was 19.4, as this craziest race ended two and a half hours after the start. Pierre Gasly took third place in the other Alpine.

As for Norris, who got away not once but twice, he finished sixth, having been given a place by his teammate Oscar Piastri, who was ordered to yield on lap 46. They may not want to ask him to play Jeeves again. Norris’s Wooster.

Since Kimi Raikkonen, in Suzuka, Japan in 2005, someone has come from so far back, also 17th, to take the victory that Verstappen achieved here. Only twice before has a driver from further back come to victory: Rubens Barrichello in Hockenheim, Germany in 2000 from 18th place, and John Watson in Long Beach, California, in 1983 from 22nd place.

Verstappen’s ride to the pages of history proves he is a true champion. Norris is not. He might one day; he may never be.

At the end, Verstappen celebrated with his fellow mechanics and girlfriend Kelly Piquet, hugging, shouting and pumping their fists. It was a relief, just as even his elastic nerves were becoming slightly tense with Norris’s increasing incursions at his leash. The Dutchman’s previous victory was way back in Spain in June, a worrying ten races ago.

Williams driver Franco Colapinto crashed before the red flag was raised in Sao Paulo

Colapinto’s car was lifted and then removed from the side of the circuit by a large truck

Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz also crashed during Sunday’s race in wet and wild conditions

The safety car was deployed several times during Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix

The first question of the afternoon was whether Norris could keep the second starting George Russell off the line? History was against him. Six of the seven times he started from pole, he relinquished the lead on the first lap. Make that seven out of eight. Norris struggled to get grip and the Mercedes came through on the inside.

All eyes were on the back of the grid and what that warrior Verstappen could do from 17th. He had been unlucky in qualifying when a delayed red flag followed Stroll’s spin. He was unable to improve his time despite being on a lap that suggested he might be able to do so, which meant a twelfth fastest time. Due to an engine change, he fell five places further.

But he was steadfast from the start, taking three cars on the outside of Turn 3 to 10th at the end of the first lap, or at least into the first corner of the second when he passed Lewis Hamilton.

He then passed Gasly and Aston’s Fernando Alonso in the following laps. He was gobbling them up, but then he bumped into Piastri in the other McLaren. He would resist on behalf of his teammate, wouldn’t he?

Not for long. His defense was weak and Verstappen raced on as if the Australian stopped in front of the Dutchman’s forerunners. He was through it like a cavalcade.

Liam Lawson, in the RB of Red Bull’s junior team, would never show Verstappen the long route. The world champion reached sixth place.

Meanwhile, at the front, Norris was within or just beyond Russell’s reach. There was no DRS to help him in the rain.

Norris felt the task of passing him beyond his car’s field of view. “I’m having trouble overtaking, so slow on the straights,” he said.

Charles Leclerc was now in front of Verstappen. The Ferrari man defended himself bravely at the start of lap 22. “He’s pushing me against the white lines,” Verstappen complained in a comment that had to be placed under ‘I’ for irony.

Anyway, Leclerc pulled into the pits and ended up back in traffic.

Now Norris became tense. He asked if he had to enter the pit lane to overtake. The question was jumpy and there appeared to be an error. Verstappen stayed outside, just like Ocon. It paid off in combination with brilliance.

Two safety cars and a 25-minute suspension with a red flag stimulated the senses, but through it all Verstappen emerged as a man from another place.